


"Wulf"

by soltryce (cloudboi)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Trent Ikithon is his own trigger warning, he's not in this but like. in the periphery, i am so weak for blumentrio content?, i had to do this immediately, spoilers for episode 88!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:09:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21780904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudboi/pseuds/soltryce
Summary: Caleb goes on a walk.Company awaits.
Relationships: Eodwulf/Caleb Widogast, implied Astrid/Eodwulf/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 13
Kudos: 251





	"Wulf"

**Author's Note:**

> Caleb: "Wulf...?"  
Me: nnnnnggggghhhhh bOYS

It comes as no surprise at all when Caleb turns a corner and finds Eodwulf casually leaning against a wall, arms crossed and expression carefully neutral.   
Of course he wouldn’t just leave it at their fraction of a conversation at the sanatorium.   
Caleb wonders whether Ikithon knows he is here, then immediately dismisses the thought.   
Of course he knows.   
He’s probably sent him to further unsettle Caleb, while he is unable to make a proper move against him.   
Ikithon likes toying with people, and Caleb is his new favorite - old favorite.

“I was just about to pay a visit to Astrid. You’re welcome to accompany me,” Caleb says, but the forced casualty is so easy to see through.   
He knows he won’t get another opportunity to get away from the group; they’re so protective of him now that it’s becoming stifling.   
Especially when every thinly veiled threat against Ikithon feels like they’re signing their death sentence, over and over again.

Eodwulf falls into step beside him when he walks on, and Caleb tries hard not to start shaking.   
He buries a hand underneath his sleeve and scratches, his nails getting caught on familiar grooves.

“Caleb Widogast.” Eodwulf draws out the name, as if tasting it and trying to decide whether he likes it or not. “What made you settle on that?”

Caleb shrugs. He hates this. He wants to know what Eodwulf is getting at, and he wants to know now. But this isn’t the game they’re playing. Not _Ikithon’s_ game.  
“Random chance. It was one of many I used.”

Eodwulf’s hand wraps around his wrist, out of nowhere, and Caleb freezes up completely. But, of course, it is only to gently tug his hand out of his sleeve, away from the scars.   
Eodwulf holds on for another heartbeat, then lets go.  
“You know you don’t need it anymore? There’s hardly any use in trying to hide, now that you’re back.”

Caleb bristles, but it’s hardly enough to cut through the state of panic he’s been in since walking into the throne room. “I am not _back_.”

Eodwulf shrugs, unfazed. “Not entirely, not yet. But you’re home, and he has eyes on you again. It’s only a matter of time.”

He’s... he’s probably not wrong.   
As much as the Nein have offered protection, as much as he’d like to hide away in Rosohna, he knows that nothing will ultimately be enough to stop Ikithon from getting what he wants.   
If he wants Caleb, he will get him eventually.   
If they don’t all die to the Chained Oblivion before, that is.

“If you pull this off,” Eodwulf continues, “If you do what he expects of you, he will be pleased enough to forgive the things you did. I know, I know you’re terrified, but you were always his favorite. He’d welcome you back. He said so.”

Caleb spins around to face him, his jaw set and his eyes hard. “Oh, he will _forgive_ me, will he? For not being able to stomach murdering my parents? For escaping from his grasp, for hiding from him? For finding out that he manipulated my memories and _made me_ believe my parents were traitors?” He glares, and Eodwulf falters for a moment.

“... how did you find out?” he asks, very softly.

Caleb presses his lips together, refusing to answer. That woman might still be in the sanatorium. He doesn’t want her to get hurt. He’s already done enough to her.

Eodwulf shakes his head. “I can imagine that it must have been... difficult to learn outside of the proper environment. It wasn’t easy for Astrid and me either.”

“He told you, then?” Caleb isn’t sure what disgusts him more, the fact that Ikithon would choose to simply reveal his depravity, or that both of his dearest friends remained loyal to him despite it all.

“Well, yes. Of course he did. When we were ready.” Eodwulf takes his hands, both of them this time, and Caleb lets it happen. “It was a necessary sacrifice, Bren. For us to become the people we needed to be, for the good of all.”

Caleb laughs shakily. “You really believe that. You... you are this brainwashed?”

“I’m perfectly capable of making my own judgments. I just... have different priorities than you, apparently.” Eodwulf looks genuinely sad for a moment, but Caleb doesn’t know if he really buys it.   
They’re all great liars, and it’s been so long that he can’t reliably read him anymore. “We wanted to visit you. We did. He prohibited it. Said it was counterproductive. I suppose it would have been. We couldn’t have helped you anyway, and it would have been a distraction.”

It makes sense.   
And it’s annoyingly comforting to know that they didn’t just abandon him there, that they didn’t just forget about him.

“I am glad you got better,” Eodwulf continues, with that sad smile on his face that could be real or could be fake entirely.   
“You really do look good. I like the long hair on you.”

Caleb pulls his hands away and tries to stand strong and meet Eodwulf’s eyes. “I don’t know what you are trying to do, but we are not seventeen anymore. Things have changed. Well... you have not, but I have.”   
He swallows. “... it’s not too late, you know? You can get away from him.”

Eodwulf laughs, then, and it has nothing of the warmth it used to have. “Oh, like you did? Like you _got away_? Please spare me the savior act, Bren. You’ve always been like this. Always thought you were superior, that you were the only one who knew what was right.”

Caleb wants to protest. But that is how Eodwulf would remember him. He stays silent.

“You didn’t achieve shit.” Eodwulf takes a step closer, and Caleb steps back. Another one, and he’s up against the wall with Eodwulf looming over him.   
That’s an old game they used to play. It used to have more pleasant connotations. “You ran, and you were dragged into this anyway. He said you had a great destiny, and you’ve only confirmed that. There’s no getting away. If he’d sent me out to get you and bring you home, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“But he didn’t,” Caleb wagers, and Eodwulf smiles. This one is dangerous. Predatory.

“No. He didn’t send me at all. I just couldn’t help myself. He’ll be fine with it, he already gave us both sanction to seek you out if we wanted.”

That sounds like Ikithon. Too arrogant to believe that Caleb could sway them in his favor. And Caleb is beginning to see why.

It also serves to make him even more nervous, knowing that both Astrid and Eodwulf could just pop up at any time.   
He should get his friends some protection against scrying. Maybe they’ll have time for that in Rosohna, when they talk to the Bright Queen.

“Well? Did you find what you wanted to find?” Caleb challenges.

Eodwulf brings up a hand and gently runs his fingertips along Caleb’s cheek and jaw. “I was afraid I would find a stranger. But I found our Bren instead.”   
And he leans in to kiss Caleb, and Caleb panics, but at the same time... at the same time it’s still the same.   
It’s so achingly familiar, and Caleb wants to scream. To push him off, make him stop. Throw a firebolt at him.

He doesn’t. 

He doesn’t kiss back either, and Eodwulf pulls away, a little crease between his brows.

Caleb avoids his eyes. “Don’t do that again.” It’s supposed to come out as forceful, but it’s more of a soft plea.

Eodwulf’s hand wanders to his hair, his fingers bury within it, and he sighs deeply. “It’s been a long time. I can be patient a little while longer.” And he steps away, leaving Caleb cold and... aching, inside.

When he lifts his eyes, Eodwulf is nowhere to be seen.

He pulls up his shoulders and continues his walk.


End file.
